Super Junior wows fans at concert

Super Junior thrilled fans to the core at its concert last Saturday. 

WHAT an awesome sight! The stadium was a sea of pearl sapphire blue (Super Junior’s official colour) with glowsticks that shone in the dark as South Korean boyband Super Junior wowed the 9,500 fans at their sell-out third Asia tour Super Show 3 at Bukit Jalil Putra Indoor Stadium last Saturday night.

The 10-member boyband – comprising Leeteuk, Heechul, Yesung, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowookand Kyuhyun, all aged between 23 and 27 – stepped on stage in crisp, all-white outfits.
They were joined by Henry Lau and Zhou Mi from the eight-member sub-group Super Junior M as they entertained Malaysian ELFs (acronym for Ever Lasting Friends, that is, Super Junior’s fans) with over 35 songs in Korean, English and Mandarin during the show.

High energy: Korean boyband Super Junior rocking the Bukit Jalil Putra Indoor Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. – Darran Tan / The Star

ELFs in the four separate rock pits could get up close to their idols, snap pictures with them and pass them gifts, thanks to the specially designed stage.

Not-to-be-missed, even member-on-hiatus Kangin, who is still serving in the National Service, was shown on the big screen towards the middle of the show.

Super Junior got fans grooving to their Korean smash hits like Sorry Sorry, Super Girl and Don’t Don. Apart from group hits, the boys also had solo acts and entertained with covers of English and Mandarin pop numbers which got fans singing along – with Kyuhyun (Wan Fang’s Endless Love), Ryeowook (Mandarin version of One Fine Spring Day accompanied by Sungmin on the guitar), Leeteuk (Wang Lee Hom’s Kiss Goodbye), Yesung (It Had To Be You), Eunhyuk (Jay Sean’s Down), Siwon (Looking For The Day), Zhou Mi (Miss Chic), Sungmin (If You Leave), Henry (Justin Bieber’s Baby), and Donghae and Eunhyuk (I Wanna Love You).

Heechul, who was hit in the face by a placard thrown by a fan in Shanghai on March 5, took to the stage wearing a pair of shades and sometimes a face mask as well.

Super Junior members Sungmin (left) and Leeteuk enthralling their fans while floating mid-air, sprinkling confetti.

In order to prevent flying projectiles injuring the boys again, water bottles were not even allowed into the stadium, and bag checks were conducted. Adoring Malaysian fans had no problem with that and demonstrated their love in a civilised manner with fan chants while waving blue glowsticks and hand-held banners.

The cutest bit came towards the end when the boys came out dressed as vegetables – pumpkin (Sungmin), mushroom (Eunhyuk), broccoli (Shindong), onion (Leeteuk), tomato (Ryeowook), cabbage (Yesung), bean sprouts (Donghae), green pepper (Kyuhyun), carrot (Siwon) and chilli (Heechul) – as they sang Cooking Cooking.

The boys led their fans in singing Happy Birthday to Eunhyuk who turns 25 next month.
Canadian-Chinese singer Henry further endeared himself to Malaysian Strings (Henry’s fans) when he revealed that he enjoyed reading the tweets he gets, 70% of which were from Malaysians. And as a parting word, Siwon also expressed his sadness about the recent Japanese earthquake and urged everyone to “pray for Japan”.

The three-hour-long concert started barely 10 minutes after 6pm and ended some 20 minutes after 9 o’clock.
The boys were as playful as usual and ran around teasing one another. Still, it was a much more conservative show compared to the rambunctious one I went to at Manila’s Araneta Coliseum last month. I say this partly because Siwon kept his shirt on while Heechul, Shindong, Donghae and Eunhyuk left out their cross-dressing set for the Kuala Lumpur leg of their world tour.

And while the fans’ screams were deafening, it was not nearly as ear-splitting as at Super Show 2 last year which left a ringing in my ears long after the show.

Having said that, Super Junior delivered a power-packed performance, which kept Malaysian ELFs on a high from the beginning to the end of the show.

After promising fans they would work hard for their fifth studio album, the lads were whisked off for their late-night flight back home.

The Malaysian leg of Super Show 3 was organised by Singapore-based Running Into The Sun.

Source: SETO KIT YAN@thestar online